How The Force Awakens Broke Star Wars
Episodes 7-9 are just fan fiction
I remember as a kid in the 80’s hearing playground rumors: “George Lucas has NINE movies mapped out for Star Wars.”
I grew up in the same hometown as George. He wasn’t there anymore, but it was like his imagination still roamed the streets.
NINE movies?
So of course I was excited to see The Force Awakens. I gathered all my friends. We bought tickets opening night. It was the chance to finally see what happened next.
I walked out of the theater hurt and confused.
I wanted to like it.
It’s taken me all these years to process it, and thus this post.
Nobody Wants a Reset
JJ Abrams was under a lot of pressure, especially after the prequels were criticized so harshly.
So he made a clone. Rebellion == Resistance. Tatooine == Jakku. R2D2 lost in the desert with secret plans == BB8 lost in the desert with a secret map.
But there was a huge problem with that.
He reset the characters to make them underdogs again.
Princess Leia Organa was leading a Resistance? A Resistance is something the French do underground when the Nazi’s have invaded. It’s not something you do when the New Republic has defeated the Empire and risen to power once again in the galaxy.
Princess Leia should have been Grand Chancellor Leia, leading the New Republic from the throne in all its majesty in Coruscant.
That’s why we clung to the edge of our seats starting with A New Hope through Return of the Jedi: we wanted to see these Rebels win, and restore peace and freedom to the galaxy.
Han Solo Should Have Taken his Place in Society
Han’s character arc was him learning to give up smuggling in order to join and support a higher, nobler cause: the Rebellion. That’s why we loved it so much when he came back to save Luke in the Death Star trenches in A New Hope.
Han changed. He matured. He grew.
The Force Awakens should’ve had him at Leia’s side in the New Republic as General Solo, helping her to command the affairs of the new state they had created together.
Instead, he got reset. He was a smuggler again.
We lost our hero.
We Were Robbed!
Leia’s entire story was the Rebels winning and her ascent to the throne. What was the New Republic like after they won?
Just give us that moment of glory. All it would take is a few scenes showing Leia in Coruscant, commanding the affairs of a grand new government that was full of freedom and markedly better than the Empire which they had toppled.
Then the threat of the First Order could’ve arrived. That could’ve been a mere 8 minutes into Episode 7. That’s all we needed.
Then introduce the fascinating character which Rey is, and fold her into the story.
Instead, we never got to see the result of the Battle of Endor or Luke’s heroism and Darth Vader’s ultimate sacrifice on the second Death Star.
It was like they didn’t even matter.
That’s what hurt so bad.
The Force Awakens erased and cancelled all three previous movies.
It ruined the Skywalker Saga arc.
I’m Looking Forward to the Reboot
Write your senator! Call Lucasfilm! Let’s demand a reboot of Episodes 7-9.
We could fix it with a few tweaks.
George, for all the criticism you got for Episodes I-III, you still had something going for you: a consistent vision and a true story arc.
In my mind, I’m filling in the gaps and rewriting the story, because that’s what storytellers do.
At least in this age of reboots, it might only be a few years until someone does a remake. Fan film anyone?
Did you like the sequels? Let me know in the comments.
Or share this post.
See you in the future.
Adam Sidwell
Creative Director
Future House Publishing & Future House Studios
And Another Thing…
Sword of the Week: Luke Skywalker’s Green Lightsaber. The one he used when he had ascended to Jedi.
"I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete. Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen."
―Darth Vader, examining Luke Skywalker's lightsaber
Book Recommendation: Ridgerunners. Speaking of space operas and smugglers, Rigdgerunners is written by Micky Nielson, a game narrative designer from Blizzard, and story expert. It’s so good, it’s going to require a follow up post.
Join the conversation: I talk about the humble origins of Future House Studios and how we got to build the Transformers game. Come leave a comment or read it here.
Now I understand why the sequels crashed and burned so hard! We’d seen our beloved characters go through SO much already. They had fought their battles—literal and metaphorical—and they deserved to bask in the glorious fulfillment of their character arcs. Imagine if Harry Potter, after defeating Voldemort and saving the wizarding world, then returned to his sad life in the cupboard under the stairs. What?? Nah, it wouldn’t be right. I can understand what Abrams was trying to do. It just could have been much better. I support reboots 1000%.
Ep7 should've been Luke reestablishing the jedi temple and training jedis including Kylo Ren, then showing his betrayal. There could be another story of a new threat to the new republic, ie, the first order. It's not rocket science.